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- The Tri-State Area
When it comes to unusual race cars built in a shed and sent to the most prestigious races in the world, you need look no further than the UK.
Piper's story begins with the famous Kent tuning company in 1963, co-founded by former Gemini F3 team owner George Henrotte and best-known for preparing racey Ford engines - including for its own low-volume cars based on Ford mechanicals. Henrotte happened to meet the talented designer Tony Hilder, who'd worked on the McLaren M1A, and recruited him to design a GT car under the Piper brand.
That resulted in the GT, shown in 1967, creating sufficient interest in the brand that Henrotte took the decision to calve Piper Cars into its own concern - under Piper Sports Racer owner and driver Brian Sherwood - and take the company to the global motorsport billboard of Le Mans.
Under Sherwood's guidance, the company created the GTR racer. Designed by Hilder to fit the Group 6 Prototype category, the GTR was about as out-there as they come - not least for that twin-nose design with an integral front wing.
All-in, the Piper GTR weighed barely 600kg and sat at just 30 inches (76mm) high - three-quarters the height of the Ford GT40 with which it was intended to race, though in a different engine category. The weight was in part down to the fact the monocoque essentially consisted of a special wood composite - a plastic/balsa sandwich - with a glass fibre body shell.
Piper made two cars for the 1969 attempt at Le Mans, with a two-litre BMW version for Sherwood himself that proved unreliable in testing and never made it to France. The second - chassis BJS-3 (the green car in the images) - had a 1.3-litre Lotus-Ford engine and actually made it as far as the track.
Not much further, it transpired. Tim Lalonde experienced issues with the car - reportedly exceptionally fast in the P1.3 class, with a 164mph top speed down Ligne Droite des Hunaudieres - and failed to set a qualifying time. A rumour emerged from the paddock that the French scrutineers refused to certify the car on a technicality with the engine to prevent it from outshining the home favourite Alpine A210 (which itself retired midway), but this has never been anything but the rumour.
Sadly Sherwood was killed in a road accident later in 1969, and this brought an end to Piper's racing ambitions. Two further GTRs were completed, but the company - now under workshop manager Bill Atkinson under the name "Embrook Engineering" - moved back into road cars. Economic conditions saw Piper cease to exist entirely in 1974.
BJS-3 itself survived and was restored for classic racing as recently as 2010 but has disappeared since it was bought at the Coys Auction Autosport International in 2011. Former Piper GTR owner Tony Claydon set up Piper Racing Cars in 2006 and sells replicas of the car under the name Piper GTR Le Mans.
